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🏠 Vacasa accepted a revised offer by Casago, a property management firm specializing in vacation rentals, to acquire all public shareholder-held shares at $5.30 per share. Casago has dropped initial merger price adjustment clauses, ensuring a fixed purchase price for shareholders. A competing offer from Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP at $5.75 per share was considered but not preferred by Vacasa’s Special Committee due to lack of a "superior proposal" and uncertainties, including unresolved tax agreement approvals and essential negotiations that Davidson Kempner failed to finalize, which could delay or jeopardize the deal. The transaction with Casago is poised for rapid completion, recommended by Vacasa's board.

🏠 B&B HOTELS launched B&B Home targeting the extended stay market, expected to triple in the next eight years. Sophie Donabedian, the Director of Sustainable Development, developed the new brand focusing on local immersion and sustainability. The first B&B Home hotels opened in Saint-Ouen, Brides-les-Bains, and Fort-de-France, each uniquely integrated into its local ecosystem with a commitment to local partnerships and suppliers.

💸 A January 2025 survey conducted by HomeExchange, a leading home exchange platform, found that 54% of its members have used the service to extend a business trip for personal reasons or combine remote work with vacations, embracing the "bleisure" trend (business + leisure). The trend reflects a growing desire for flexibility and new experiences among professionals. Additionally, 35% of members have combined work and leisure between 2 and 5 times, and 46% of those who haven't yet tried it are willing to consider the option.

🏛 Staying at a castle-hotel in France offers a historical and luxurious experience. The Château Hermitage de Combas in Hérault, built in 1260, sits on a 75-hectare property and offers two large, fully-equipped ground floor apartments with a terrace. Guests can enjoy a pool, tennis court, and a new spa with various facilities, located 15 km from Béziers and Pézenas. Château de Foncscolumbe, near Aix-en-Provence, part of the 2L Collection and a Relais & Châteaux member, features a Quattrocento-style façade, 50 classic rooms and suites, a French garden, and a cedar planted by the Queen of England in the 1960s. Its restaurant, led by Chef Marc Fontanne, recently earned a Michelin star.

🏨 Managing a hotel without in-depth analysis of historical data is risky, akin to piloting a plane without navigation instruments. A well-configured Property Management System (PMS) is crucial for detailed segmentation and financial data analysis. Daily revenue analysis is key, considering factors like customer type, booking methods, and pricing strategies. Budget creation typically occurs in November-December, based on comprehensive data from the past year. Accurate data analysis and understanding of daily variations enable realistic future performance projections and revenue optimization. Avoid common mistakes like vague corporate contract information, misaligned pricing, and overlooking precise segmentation. A solid budget requires a methodological approach, starting with PMS configuration and segmentation, followed by in-depth data analysis to identify reservation patterns and segment performance. This process should begin months before the actual budgeting exercise.

🏖️ In 2023, Barcelona saw 15.6 million city tourists and an additional 10.3 million in the region, totaling nearly 26 million visitors. Influenced by both leisure and business travel, the city's hospitality sector experiences strong seasonal trends. Large-scale events, strategic urban development, and infrastructure improvements have spurred Barcelona's growth and international appeal.

🍴 During the "Semaine des métiers du tourisme" from March 17-24, 2025, France Travail, UMIH, and Promocash will launch "Restaurants éphémères" for recruitment in the hospitality sector. Aimed at easing the challenge of recruiting collaborators, around thirty pop-up restaurants will be organized in various regions for job seekers to demonstrate their skills directly to recruiters, with professional immersion, interview preparation, and coaching offered beforehand.

🏨 CBRE France, a leader in corporate real estate advisory, is expanding in the Living and Hospitality markets. With the hotel sector undergoing major changes, CBRE appointed Quentin Laferté as Director of the Hotel Investment Department and Quentin Peltier as Associate Director. The investment residential market in Europe topped asset transactions in 2024, and the strengthened team aims to better serve investor and operator needs in the evolving hotel industry.

📢 Paris hosting Food Hotel Tech on March 19-20, targets hospitality professionals seeking tech innovations, highlighting artificial intelligence (AI) transforming customer experience and hotel operations. The event advises identifying priorities like task automation, customer satisfaction, or sales boosts and choosing solutions that integrate with existing software, considering hotel size, target audience, and location for strategic alignment.

🏖 Nathalie DELATTRE, Minister of Tourism, launched the 3rd edition of the Tourism Jobs Week on March 17, lasting until March 23 in France and April 27 in the Overseas territories. The event showcases the diversity of tourism careers and training opportunities, targeting the public, particularly the youth and job seekers. Tourism represents 7.5% of France's GDP, with 100 million international visitors annually, and nearly 2 million direct and indirect jobs. By the end of 2024, the sector had 63,000 vacancies in hospitality and restaurants, with 59% of job openings considered difficult to fill.